An Idyll
by robert.smith.9400984
Summary: This just came to me one night, I looked for somewhere to publish it and found this website. First ever real fanfic! Beast Boy/Starfire: short, just for fun, not particularly serious. Couldn't think of a title so just called it what it is. I hope some people enjoy it!


In a silent corridor, in a solitary tower with grey walls engilded by the light of sunset diffused through glass, a cat was sitting by the closed door of a room.

It was a beautiful cat. It had adorable little whiskers, darling little paws, and a fine tail that flicked endearingly from side to side.

It was also bright green.

Beast Boy loved becoming a cat and letting his nose guide him here. Time and time again, on quiet nights, he would follow the scent that drew him irresistibly to this corridor, this threshold, where he would sit, as now, wishing for the courage to go in.

On the outside, he was a model of feline inscrutability; but inside, his stomach was doing somersaults, and he felt as if he was about to cough up a hairball. Nowhere else on earth made him feel like this place did – as afraid, as exultant.

Because on the other side of the door was the most beautiful creature Beast Boy had ever encountered.

# # # #

Starfire was singing as she watered her flargzilk seedlings, a happy Tamaranian ditty which she hoped would encourage them to grow, but really was just as much an efflorescence of her own blithe spirits. All day, she had had an expectant feeling, as though something wondrous were just around the corner. Starfire had a good feeling about every day, but this day felt especially good.

Covering up the seed-bed so the tiny plants couldn't wander off in the night and chew on the curtains (or her), she drifted to the window. Soon she would see, reflected in the darkling ocean, the stars she knew and loved. The day was ending. But its promise was not yet exhausted. On some level she could feel it – as though the air itself were restrainedly urging the fullness of its potential upon her, but not announcing itself as yet: like a silent visitor waiting outside her door before knocking.

There was blue sky above her and peace in the strongholds of her heart. She continued singing half under her breath, and waited.

# # # #

Beast Boy, who had the advantage of being able to achieve best practice with all five senses (and some more besides), was fortunate enough to know that Love has a particular smell. As a cat, with a cat's subtle nose and unique mode of perception, he could detect it, follow its trail. And it was Love which made up the greatest part of the heady, intoxicant scent that forever led him to this door. The girl on the other side of it positively radiated Love – vast, unconditional, undiscriminating; more powerfully than any creature Beast Boy had ever known.

The innocent love with which Starfire embraced all things was an essential part of her nature, underlying all her temporary angers and sadnesses; it came from her unquenchable joy in living. There were other scents admixed, of course, Love tempered by the hard smells of stone and iron and blood: for she was princess of a warrior people, born to a world whose bedrock lay exposed to the wrath of a fierce sun, ruled by the strength of an imperial monarchy; and after long centuries its jagged crown was stained rust-red with the blood royal. But against these frightening odours he could discern the softness of femininity, the quietness of patience and dignity. There was even an elusive cold smell that made his hackles rise: a breath out of the gulfs of exile that lay between Starfire and strange, far-distant Tamaran.

But Love surmounted all. The scent of it ensorcelled his taste buds even now, indescribable to anyone limited to a human frame of reference. This was a special connection he alone had with her, he knew: only he could appreciate how greatly and completely she loved. Raven could recognise it, perhaps; but she could never allow herself to truly feel it, let alone reciprocate. And surely Starfire must wish for that love to be returned?

A moment came when he found that his fear had ebbed away just enough, and he changed. Where before there had been a green cat with a twitching tail, there was now a green boy with quivering ears, who raised a trembling hand to the door and knocked before he could stop himself.

The door opened. She was there.

She was glorious.

# # # #

"Hi –!" he squeaked. He cleared his throat. "Hi, Starfire," he managed.

"Hello," she said mellifluously, regarding him with eyes as green as he was.

Now he was in his human form, suddenly the sense of smell was almost gone, and his eyes took over, only to fail in the face of the dazzling sight that met them. Blearily, he could see her floating in the doorway with the sunshine on her face, a beautiful vision in purple, scarlet and gold. He wasn't sure if she was actually floating or if his head was just spinning. Probably it was both.

"I – I have something important I need to tell you," he said with difficulty.

"Then please, do tell." It seemed as though she was ready to laugh – but perhaps (he held fast to the hope) not to laugh at him? He felt sick, but started talking.

"I just need to say – Star, all the time I'm with you, I feel this… completeness. Like there's nothing else I'll ever need. And all the time I'm not with you, I wish I was. D'you get where I'm coming from? I know we haven't known each other long. But – well – you're the most beautiful, the most wonderful person I've ever met." He paused. "Starfire, I think I'm in love with you. In fact I know I am."

Her expression had not changed as he stumbled through his speech, but now her mouth was tugged by a tiny smile. She landed gently in front of him and placed her hands on his shoulders – and immediately, as though a starbolt had passed through him, all his dizziness and queasiness vanished, and he was in the undiluted moment, looking into her eyes with utter clarity.

"Do you love me too?" he asked.

Of course, he already knew the answer.

# # # #

Now it was the crest of twilight, when above the tower the sky's huge curve stretched through the whole range of the spectrum. To the violet east, on the shadow-side, the myriad lights of the city were beginning to blaze. Overhead, early stars were gleaming in fading blue. And far out to the west across the placid ocean, the day's last embers sizzled red and pink. There, benign planets burned: Venus, shining strongly in the train of the sun; and a little above her, in close conjunction, Jupiter's fortunate light. It was an evening of breathtaking beauty on every hand.

But for the green eagle who soared majestically into the last of the sunset, and the enchanting, sylph-like girl who flew in joyful loops around him with red hair streaming out behind, it was as though these beauties did not exist; they had eyes only for each other.


End file.
